Award-winning eco campaign uses plastic bags to create art

An award-winning campaign hopes to bring awareness to the harm plastic bags can do to the environment.

Advertising and consumer engagement agency Lowe Philippines created three murals using donated plastic bags and depicting scenes of flooding in the metro. The artworks have bagged several awards, including international ones at events such as the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and at the United Print Media Group's Tinta Awards. They are currently on exhibit at SM Aura in Bonifacio Global City.

Inspired by the Eco Bag

Lowe, the agency hired by SM to communicate its corporate social reponsibility (CSR) projects, was inspired by the SM Eco Bag, said Lowe Philippines president and CCO Leigh Reyes at the exhibit's launch last Friday.

SM introduced the bags in 2009 as a more environment-friendly, reusable alternative to plastic grocery bags. There are currently more than three million being used by shoppers nationwide.

"When we saw the Eco Bag, we thought hey, maybe we can do something to promote environmental awareness using plastic bags," Reyes told GMA News Online in an interview.

"While shoppers still use plastic bags, we felt surely there can be creative ways we can repurpose them. Internally, we're always inspired by thoughts like that."

Reyes and her creative team came up with the idea of using plastic bags to depict what can and does happen when plastic bags are thrown away carelessly—mounds of garbage resulting in polluted and clogged up waterways and sewers, leading to flooding during the rainy season.

In an interview last year, Marikina's Environment Officer Gloria Buenaventura said that the careless disposal of plastic bags is one of the factors contributing to the metro's flooding problem. “Every time na magfa-flood, [ang] laging tinatanggal, plastic,” she said. “Ang plastic kasi, hindi sya masama. Ang masama yung nagdi-discard... yung gumagamit.”

Each bag included in the murals, said Reyes, "is one less plastic bag going into the environment."

Reyes said it took the Lowe designers months of on-and-off work to complete the murals. However, they are not stopping at three. Also at the exhibit is a box where shoppers can donate their own used plastic bags. The agency plans to make a fourth mural using the donations. — VC, GMA News

"Plastic Grandma," "Plastic Dudes" and "Plastic Kids" will be on display at the Atrium of SM Aura in Bonifacio Global City until September 14.